


a wandering star

by LiteraLi



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Arrow (TV 2012) Season 7 Speculation, F/M, Future Fic, post episode: 7x08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 10:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16951899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiteraLi/pseuds/LiteraLi
Summary: Post 7x08 flash-forwards: After receiving a visit from William, Dinah and Zoe, Blackstar makes a call to her mother.





	a wandering star

**Author's Note:**

> Like most of the fandom, I was surprised to see that William didn't recognize Blackstar/Maya in last week's flashforward. However, I am not giving up hope that Maya is Olicity's daughter, and wrote this to explore the option of how that could still be possible. Even though it sucks that Will and Maya were separated (if she is indeed his sister), I can see them doing it just for the Oliver/Thea parallels. I also cannot accept that Felicity, nor Oliver, are dead in the future. 
> 
> Title from David Bowie's Blackstar.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

“Hello?” answers the voice on the other line, sounding crisp and clear, almost like it was coming from right there in the room and not from miles and miles away in some undisclosed location.

 

“M-mom?” Maya stammers, failing to get the word out without her voice catching. She lets out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding in since she dialed the number. “It worked!”

 

“What did I teach you about codenames, Blackstar?” her mother chides, but there’s a softness in her voice, an echo of the special tone she uses just for her.

 

“Sorry, Overwatch. I just - I know that everything went as planned, but it looked so real. Everyone thinks you’re dead. I couldn’t help but worry -”

 

“I know. I know, baby.” Felicity’s voice is full-blown soft now. “And I’m sorry it had to be like this. But it’s ok. Like you said, it worked and I’m fine.”

 

“I know. This was the only way. But what I meant was that the rest of your plan worked, too. Will’s here. He came back to Star City!” Maya can’t keep the excitement out of her voice. It’s been so hard, being separated from her brother for so many years. And it was so hard to pretend not to know him, almost impossible not to jump into his arms. At least now she can finally talk to someone about it.

 

“Really? You saw him?” Her mother’s voice is filled with emotion. “And not to be a broken record, but we really shouldn't use his name...I mean, this is secure as secure can get - I did develop these burners, after all - but you can never be too careful. He needs a codename. Why didn’t I give him a codename? He probably hates me. Well, he probably hates me for other reasons, starting with the fact that -”

 

“Mo-overwatch!” Maya cuts her mother off, something she learned from her father at a young age is the only way to get her mother to stop rambling and focus on the matter at hand. Other than shutting her up with a kiss. To think, she used to gag at that, but now - now she would give anything to be able to witness it again. She takes a second to gather up some strength and stop her mom from going off on a full-blown guilt-ridden spiral. “Let's just avoid using any names and you'll think of one together when you see him, okay? And he could _never_ hate you. As it is, your relationship with him is better off than his relationship with me, because at the very least he still _remembers_ you.”

 

Maya hates the way the hurt is evident in her voice. She tries so hard to be brave and ruthless, puts on this persona every day and - especially - every night because she can't survive in this city if she's weak. But if there's anyone that she can be vulnerable with, it's her mother. These past years have been hard on all of them, and some might even say her mother has become unrecognizable. However, Maya knows the truth, and that’s that Felicity Smoak is only doing what she's always done - whatever it takes to save her family.

 

“Oh, honey,” her mom breathes, successfully drawn out of her earlier spiral, but still sounding just as guilty. “I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how hard that must have been. But you have to realize that it makes sense. It's been a while...and you looked so different the last time he saw you. You know that the girls in our family go through puberty late -”

 

“Overwatch…” Maya sighs. Leave it to her mother to bring up something like puberty while they’re dealing with life-threatening situations.

 

“- sorry, but it's true. And then you started dying your hair - you know imitation is the greatest form of flattery, right?” Maya scoffs, and Felicity continues. “Not to mention, the last thing he would have expected was to see his baby you-know-what all jacked up and fighting people in a cage. He did come to see you at your _night_ job, yes?”

 

“Yes. But..that’s exactly it. He doesn’t know me anymore. He didn’t even seem to like me very much. Just threw a wad of cash at me to get me to talk and then when he didn’t like what I had to say, he broke into my office and found my copy of the plans.” Maya is trying very hard not to sound like a little girl who needs assurance from her mommy that her big brother still loves her. But god, it’s been years and she can’t bear the thought of Will hating what she’s had to become while he was away. She and Will weren’t close in the way that most other siblings probably are - he is over a decade older than her - but they always had a special bond. Will had always been there, looking out for her, and Maya had worshiped the ground he walked on.

 

Loving Will from afar - missing Will when he went away, hoping but not knowing if she would ever see him again - has taken a toll on her heart that she can’t ever get back. And now he’s here, he’s finally come back, but they’ve both changed so much that she’s literally unrecognizable to him. She’s coming to the realization that she probably won’t ever get back their lost relationship, and it _hurts_.

 

“Okay, we’re going to come back to the breaking into your office thing in a minute,” her mother has clearly heard the hurt in her voice, because now she’s in full-blown ‘mom pep-talk’ mode, as Maya likes to call it. “Sweetie, your- he _loves_ you. Do you hear me? _He loves you_ . People change - you changed, he changed - but that is _never_ going to change. I’ve known him since before you were born and that kind of love - the kind of love he had for you from the moment he found out about your existence - that doesn’t go away. It’s unconditional because he loves you just for being what you are to him. He loves you just for being _you_.”

 

Maya stays silent. She wants to believe her mother but still, so much has changed, so much time has passed. Sure, Will loved her when she was born, he loved her because she was his sister. But that doesn’t mean that he loved her for _her_ . That doesn’t mean that he loves _this_ her.

 

But her mom continues. “Do you know what he did when I told him about you for the first time? He gave me the biggest hug. I was so worried about how he was going to react, but he _thanked me_ for giving him what he had always wanted. After you were born, there wasn’t a moment when you weren’t in someone’s arms, because he wouldn’t ever put you down. He used to fake being sick just to get to stay home from school and be with you. He spent hours with me building the most secure baby monitor the world has ever known. And every night he would read to you - mostly from his advanced calculus book, to help him study, but also because he read that voice stimulation was important for babies’ development. He was there cheering you on from your first smile to your first steps to your first day of school. He begged so hard for us not to send him away - not because he didn’t want to go, but because he didn’t want to leave _you_.”

 

Maya’s head is suddenly full of Will. Memories of Will giving her piggy-back rides, pushing her on the swing in their backyard, reading her his favorite books. Then he’s helping her with her homework, making dinner with her and Dad, baking cookies with her and Mom. Next, he’s challenging her to shoot at makeshift targets with toy bows and arrows and sulking just like her dad when she beats him - _badly_. They’re playing video games, buying anniversary gifts for their parents, watching the latest superhero film together as a family...the scenes go on and on.

 

Finally, she thinks of Will, right before he left, engulfing her in the biggest hug - he always did give the best hugs - and promising he’d be back someday. Maya blinks back tears. She hadn’t realized how much she’d avoided thinking about him until now. She had spent so much time focusing on the pain and the hurt of missing him that she hadn’t let herself remember all of the good times. So many good times, all full of plain, unadulterated, brotherly love. Maya feels her heart soar and she tries to grasp onto the feeling.

 

Felicity concludes, “now, I’m not saying things are just going to go back to how they were. It’s going to be different and it might be hard. But the bond you two have, nothing can break it. You have to believe that. _Nothing_ is going to change the fact that he loves you. And as long as the love is there - you can work through the rest of it. Do you understand?”

 

“Yes. I think so. I hope so.” She really, really hopes so.

 

“Good. Sweetheart, I’m so sorry but I really have to go. Are you going to be okay?” Felicity wonders.

 

“Yes. I’m good now.” And she _does_ feel a little better. She’s still upset, but she has a little more hope now for the future. Her mother really has a knack for these pep-talks, something Maya thinks she’s perfected after years of dealing with her father.

 

“You’re doing great, my brave girl. Now, I assume you have video of the break-in in your office? You’ll send it to me so I can see what they know?”

 

“Of course. You taught me well - never leave any room unsurveilled. I’m sending it right now.”

 

“Good girl. From what it sounds like, that smart boy may be a little ahead of me. I should have known better.”

 

Maya chuckles. “Yeah, you really should have. But it’s still going to work, right?”

 

“Yes. I just have to move up the timeline a bit, which is why I really have to go now. I love you so much, baby-girl. We both do. And we’re so proud of you. Just stay the course a little while longer. This is almost over and we’ll all be together again soon,” Felicity promises.

 

The line goes silent. Maya wipes away a tear she didn’t realize had escaped. She takes a moment to mourn the time with Will that was lost, but then she musters up some courage and allows herself to look forward to a better future in which they are reunited. She repeats her mother’s words to her self, whispering, “we’ll all be together again soon.” And this time, she believes it.

**Author's Note:**

> Couldn't help but be inspired by the Olicity lines in the crossover! I felt that they could parallel nicely to William and Maya's relationship after not seeing each other for so long. And I left things a little vague because the show hasn't given us much to go on, but here's hoping we get to see an Olicity baby and a happy family reunion soon!  
> Would love to hear what you thought in the comments!


End file.
